Project Taito Pheonix (image warning)

[DYNAGOD]

i don thave a jamma board handy(all i have is a capcom cps2 A- board and a jpac),and my arcade VGA is in pieces..
..is there a way to test the monitor without a game. somekind of jury rigged setup perhaps..
i need to know if this monitor works.

[gique]

I just flicked my egret on without a pcb in, and the monitor sparked into life...

lemme know about that quote! that would be great!!

then again, I wasnt needing a stepdown to run it....

[DYNAGOD]

my stepdown converter did not arrive today, but when it does tomorrow(i hope) i will give that a try..
thought a nice test pattern would be so much better
DAMN YOU DHL!!!  

[gique]

i got that "power on" sound you get when you flick a TV on, and the monitor was lit white, with a few distortion lines.....

[DYNAGOD]

well,
the paint was a total disaster...absolute total loss..
the guy who did it for me let the paint run and managed to kick up dirt from the floor into the paint...
it looks like a runny black mess..
and its high gloss so every imperfection is amplified..
i cant stand to even look at it its so bad..

the arcade gods are frowning on me...
 i can feel them looking down on me from the heavens with deep dissapointment and furious anger for the travesty i have committed....
I have no choice but to stay tonite and strip this thing down to bare metal..and of course the guy used a hardener in the paint ,making my job 3 times harder..
im thinking bare metal with a clearcoat now...

[DYNAGOD]

well heres how far i got tonite...
 

[gique]

Holy crap! you've gone all out!!

I spent 2 days just repainting my screen surround and speaker pods!!

Due to my total lack of observation, I was told there is a custom bike shop a few blocks away from work, so I'm gonna pass by and see if hey can do the bars for me...

[froggerman]

So were you able to get all of your "body work" done on the cabinet? Does the cover open properly now?

[DYNAGOD]

no not yet, i havent gotten to the body work phase yet, but
i intend to now..i was just goping to cover it with paint, but im going bare polished metal now..
im going to have to take the whole door assembly apart and try to reallign everything.i had to cut into the metal frame surrounding it to relieve the tension so i could close it for now.  

i asked about the quote on the bars yesterday and my shop manager said it would cost more than they are worth to you. ..so i think the bike shop might be something to look into to..

[RayB]

I don't understand the painting situation. Why did "the guy" paint it for you unless he knew what he was doing? And if he knew what he was doing, why'd he do such a bad job??

ayyyye

[DYNAGOD]

the guy does great work,he does all our painting here. which is why i had him do it..
but somehow, some way he managed to fug this up..
everyones like:
"keep it in a corner with the lights low no one will notice"
I NOTICE! LOL
i couldnt go to sleep last night knowing that it looked that bad, i had to free it from its dogshit paint job bondage..
getting this cab is a childhood dream come true and im not cutting any corners or settling for anything..
and i sure as hell wasnt goin to leave that runny spotchy mess on there thats for sure.
i put 12 hours into removing that paint last nite.. he used an acrylic hardener that made it hard as nails..
not to mention the brain cells i killed breathing in the dust..
im going to go with a polished metal look and thats it.im done with paint..its left a bad taste in my mouth, no pun intended
 

[DYNAGOD]

stepdown converter arrived today..
i plugged it in and fired her up..
the monitor fired up and i had a rolling set of white lines ,interference pattern,so it looks like i have a working monitor.
the right side center of the screen is notfully saturated(the side it was hit on), but im hoping a half a dozen or so degausings will alleviate that .

 
nice to see it alive!

[JoeB]

I'm going to go out on a limb and ask a really stupid question:

Why did you paint the cab in the first place? that blue on white color looked amazing.

Also, please don't give up on the paint.  I can't imagine how a metallic cab looking as good (or  better) than a nice shiny one.

Then again, that's my preference.    

[RayB]

I can't help but wonder what else is in store for you. Sounds like every step you take you get kicked in the ass.

[DYNAGOD]

the paint was so badly nicotine stained it was ridiculous.
plus i wanted something different..
i think a highly polished metal finish is oging to look sick, right now it just looks like a mess, give a few more days and that thing will look like the alumi-tub from that american hotrod show  

on the softwareside ivebegun to get my pc ready.
loaded up dos 7.1 no prob.
loaded up advance menu,advancemame, advancecab,and arcadeOS, (all not ocnfigured,just put in C:)
i printed out the documenttation from their site and its about 5 inches thick, a little under about 2 reams of paper..or nearly 1000 pages... my eyes just kind of glazed over when looking at it all..

i want to use arcadeOS, but the DOS pci drivers for the audigy card state that they were configured for use with mame, howeverwill not work with arcadeOS..

 

The SBLive.zip archive contains the dos sound card drivers for the Sound Blaster Live! and Sound Blaster Audigy pci cards. The are setup and optimized for MAME, however, they will not work with ArcadeOS.

(got them from http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/html/snddosdr.htm)

 now i dont know if that means it literally wont work with arcadeOS ,which i dont mind,its only a frontend..or it wont work with MAME if i use arcadeOS..which i definetly DO mind..
I want to use arcadeOs as it has a special DAT file created especially for the ArcadeVGA card.
So im not sure what ito do in that regard..
advancmame is so confusing..

[gique]

i asked about the quote on the bars yesterday and my shop manager said it would cost more than they are worth to you. ..so i think the bike shop might be something to look into to..

went to the bike shop.. they said $85 PER BAR !!!!!  

looks like i'm going to have to give jack tao some more ---smurfing--- money...

   

good luck with the polished metal.. it could look truly amazing if done right... i'm keeping mine as is and just restoring it to its original white and blue glory, sadly I don't have access to all the goodness you have, so mine's gonna be a very slow process!!

[JoeB]

Unless your PC is 1Ghz or slower, I'd stick away from DOS.

You have much more "creative freedom" in Windows.  Plus other apps (like DAPHNE!) work only in windows.  You'll notice games load faster and should run a bit faster too (due to the 32bit drivers loading, memory optimization, etc.. that comes part of 32bit love)  

[DYNAGOD]

Unless your PC is 1Ghz or slower, I'd stick away from DOS.

You have much more "creative freedom" in Windows.  Plus other apps (like DAPHNE!) work only in windows.  You'll notice games load faster and should run a bit faster too (due to the 32bit drivers loading, memory optimization, etc.. that comes part of 32bit love)  

I thought DOS = Faster mame performance.
plus there are display issues with using an arcade monitor.
im very confused now..

[Mr. Dude]

DOS does equal faster performance with MAME.  That's why everyone with really old PCs use DOS.  Windows takes up extra resources and such.  Although I do have to agree with JoeB in the fact that if you have a newer PC then it doesn't matter, you'll have plenty more options for programs and games if you have windows installed.    

[whammoed]

according to MAME faq:

quote:

There are now two main versions of MAME, for Windows and DOS. Both are updated at the same time, and are available on this website. Which should you use? Try them both. In most current computers, the Windows version will run better than the DOS version, but there may be incompatabilities, bugs and other unwanted features that don't exhibit in the other version. Chances are, if you can run DirectX applications on your computer, the Windows version will work fine. Ultimately, you must decide which version works best on your system.

[DYNAGOD]

dont have to twist my arm..
my eyes glazed over when peeking at the advance mame documentation.
ive been a emuloader user for ages,and im content to stay that way

[JoeB]

If you use the arcadeVGA card, you never have to worry about tweaking video and video settings.

The hardware takes care of that for you, and you can use the standard regular MAME.

[DYNAGOD]

ok....test drive




there is a problem somewhere..
i hear a very fast ticking sound coming from my switchable power supply next to the degauss etc controls inside the cabinet that coincides with a flicker & jumping movement on the monitor. i am unable to get a stable image..

any ideas....

[JoeB]

Unless you have the ArcadeVGA video card in your PC, your monitor is hitting a refresh rate that is outside its specs.

Never run your real arcade monitor without something that can "protect" your monitor.  e.g. The JPAC has special chip on board to protect your monitor from running outside the spec (I assume it's the case because I can see XP start.. it's after that screen that it goes crazy, right??)

You can run other video cards with special drivers and software tweaks as well.

[SirPeale]

Yup, you're not running @ 15KHz so that explains the unstable image.  Also, you should pull the arcade power supply if you're going to use a PC.

I'm currently haveing problems getting recent versions of DOS Mame to display a 15KHz image.  Windows versions, AFAIK don't display like that.

[DYNAGOD]

im running with a j-pac ,and i have a syn light..
jumpers are set to 15 and 25.
(should have mentioned that)
its so bad that i get a headache after trying to play with it for more than 15 minutes..and that noise really worries me ,especiall that it coinces with the visual disruption..
i will disconnect the powers suppply and see if that helps.

[SirPeale]

The only thing a J-PAC does is cut the signal down if it detects that it is over 15KHz.  That's why you're getting that split image.  Do you have an ArcadeVGA?  Or are you setting your card to 15KHz beforehand?  What OS are you going to run?

[gique]

there is a problem somewhere..
i hear a very fast ticking sound coming from my switchable power supply next to the degauss etc controls inside the cabinet that coincides with a flicker & jumping movement on the monitor. i am unable to get a stable image..

any ideas....

my power supply on the egret i got from AI does the EXACT same thing...WTF??

[DYNAGOD]

there is a problem somewhere..
i hear a very fast ticking sound coming from my switchable power supply next to the degauss etc controls inside the cabinet that coincides with a flicker & jumping movement on the monitor. i am unable to get a stable image..

any ideas....

my power supply on the egret i got from AI does the EXACT same thing...WTF??

yea theres definetly some arcing going on in there, it sounds like a gas grill starter on speed.

i disconnected the molex connections that provide power to it..however the same visual problems continue..

i placed my crushed arcadeVGA card in the computer in the hopes it may do something..

i do get some visual,but...

when i power up i see about 16 bios screens,all garbled and no  text..
windows comes up in 640x480 4 bit..

im am unable to install ther device drivers for the arcade VGA card as it does not see it. i am running in VGA mode only..

when attmepting to install the drivers i get this:

"SEVERE!!
this display driver is not compatible with the diaplay adapter installed on your system"
----------------------------------------------------------

a manual install from safe mode give me a

CODE 10: the device cannot start.
PCI bus 1
Device 0
Function 0

Adapter unavailable
the card is DOA.


IM SO PISSED!!@

[SirPeale]

Take the broken AVGA out of your system.  Putting  a broken card in your system is *not* a good idea.

Put the other card in, and run this:

http://entechtaiwan.net/util/ps.shtm

It should give you a 15KHz signal.

[gique]

Also, you should pull the arcade power supply if you're going to use a PC.

so the power supply isnt needed to power just the monitor???

[SirPeale]

Also, you should pull the arcade power supply if you're going to use a PC.

so the power supply isnt needed to power just the monitor???

Arcade monitors are generally run off mains power, which has been isolated with an isolation transformer.  The power supply converts AC power in to +5v, +12v and -5v for your PCB and coin door lights.

[JoeB]

In fact, it's a REALLY bad idea to run the internal power supply with no board attached!

You have to put a load on the 5v/12v or else you'll blow the power supply.

When people put pc's inside old arcade machines, they pull the old power supply out and build a new one that passes 110v to the monitor.

[DYNAGOD]

ive disonnected the power supply to the switchable psu..
maybe thats why its ticking away like a time bomb and arcing out..there was no load..

id like to pull the whole monitor assembly out of the cab, but there are no instruction in the manual and i can see no means of accomplishing it as there are no visible nuts bolts or screws holding it in.
im also quite leary of the high voltage factor.. so poking around is a scary affair... ive already gotten jolted twice from the monitor controls.
id like to repair the broken carriage wheels for the monitor rotation, and wire a longer switch for the 15 to 25kz jumper that is hidden deep inaccesibly behind the monitor.both of whihc can only be accomplished with the monitor and assembly removed.

not to mention it will make moving this thing up to to my second floor apartment a hell of alot easier without a monitor in it..

Im going to an autobody shop after work tomorrow to see if i can get it painted a nice deep black or metallic silver with a couple coats of clear on top for a reasonable price. i dont trust the guys at my place any longer and after being at work for 4 nights straight till 10:20pm stripping the thing down back to bare metal, i refuse to put my self in a position where i may have to do it again..
ill pay the piper and get it done right.. but again, id like to get the monitor assembly removed..
does anyone know where i can get my hands on a manual for the nanoa monitor?i will post up the complete model number tomorrow when im a work with the cab.iver emailed a few places and ive recieved no reply..

i completely dissasembled my dell and cut apart the sheetemtal frame that the case if constructed of.. i then welded it back together in a much tigher and smaller configuration that i can then screw to the gameboard drawer.
i painted it up today and ill have some pics up tomorrow morning.. it came out  pretty nice..

im trying to keep a positive outlook and continue moving forward despite lacking the one piece of critical hardware i need the most. that damn arcadeVGA card.
ANDY HELP ME!!
id be alot happier and motivated if i could get a game of batrider in on this damn thing


peale i downloaded the program ,but the damn burner in my work pc is down, so i couldnt burn it to load into my cab.ill see if i can get someone at home to burn it.
thanks for the help!  


as far as removing the power supply and replacing it with a 110v..
is there a 110v power supply that uses molex connectors?
i really like the way this 100v switchable psu is setup, its very neat. the use of the molex connectors is a really nice touch and really keeps things tight looking

[JoeB]

When you use a PC inside your acrade machine, there is no point for the internal PSU.

There's a really good article on Bob Rober's web site about "how to build a game".  It shows how to wire a new empty cab.  You should do the same thing (minus the PSU in his picture).  Works great!

As far as getting the arcadeVGA.. it might be a blessing that you don't have it!  This way you can focus on the body and forget about the PC.  If you got it working now, you'd be too distracted!  

[danny_galaga]

wow! you weren't kidding about the warning...
nice looking cab. looks like you might be one of the first here to have to panelbeat their cab during conversion!

[DYNAGOD]

heres the brains


 heres the cab after paint and before i stripped it.. you cant see all the runs..

all the parts went out to chrome last friday.

[GGKoul]

all the parts went out to chrome last friday.

Can't wait to see it completed!

[DYNAGOD]

anyone got a mame.80 zip ?
i cant find on anywhere and the mame archive only goes so far back..
thx

[SirPeale]

Just copy/paste the URL for the zip and change the version number.